QFT! Damn EA can't keep their nose out of where they are not wanted...

 

That DLC didn't conclude shit. I honestly think that was the shittest DLC I've ever played. It was practically an advertisement for DA2/3 that you paid for. What the fuck BioWare?

LOL

http://blog.brentknowles.com/2010/08/15/bioware-brent-year-10-fall-2008-summer-2009/

Wow.

Just a snippet:

Ouch. I'm not liking where this is heading.

 

Nice to see a developer think being sold to EA is a kiss of death, and the fucking balls that dude has to step down instead of being a sellout. Much respect, and I'll be looking for anything else the guy puts out in the future

The move to console up Dragon Age really hurt it in the first game, and it's going to make a bigger dent this time around with it being Mass Effect with swords. EA needs to stop being so fucking greedy and wanting to put every IP on everything.

 

Well, I'm going to preemptively call it right now, DA2 will in no way compare with the original in terms of content or gameplay.

Think about it, DA:O is MASSIVE. Quite possibly the biggest singleplayer world
(in terms of actual engaging content, not the giant empty world that was JC2) in a video game ever seen..

How are they going to compete with DA:O's content, when they essentially had about 16 months to create DA2? Not to mention the huge change up that seems to be coming between combat and gameplay style.

There's also the fact that they seem to be "mass effecting" the game world, which just really pisses me off. Don't get me wrong, I love Mass Effect & DA, but they're two very different game styles.

I really started DA:O not enjoying the game play that much, but by the end I found myself replaying DA:O far more than ME or ME2. I really hope this isn't the end of my one sided love affair with Bioware =/.

Edit for this.

I give up. I want my laptop back Bioware.

 

You've never played anything by Bethesda, have you?

 

Tried Oblivion, stopped playing about an hour in when I got bored. I suppose "engaging content" is subjective.

 

NO! FUCKING MOTHERFUCKING JESUS CHRIST ON AN ANAL DILDO MACHINE NO!
I knew it was trouble from the start, I fucking called it, but this proves it. From the second I saw the sword spin, on the selecting screen, I knew I didn't have to worry about my college grades being fucked for next year, because I am not buying that shit. The combat just took my point and rammed it into my ass like a giant spiked club. It screamed Final FUCKING Fantasy not goddamn Dragon Age. I want to go, find the head of EA, and feed him to an Archdemon.

*ragequits Bioware*

 

I ...

...



Where is my DAO2? Someone misplaced the gameplay video of it with one from a standard hack/slash ...

 

But really, we should of expected this: Dragon Age minus customizable character minus choose-your-own-background minus ability bar minus tactical view minus turn-based combat (apparently) plus ridiculosly flashy moves and retarded looking weapons equals a typical hacknslash pice of goddamn shit.

 

...I like JPRGS and that makes me sigh.

Though BW claimed it was an "exaggerated" battle.

...But I highly doubt they would waste their short development time creating animations that wouldn't be used in normal combat.

...I don't feel too good about this...

 

Pretty Please?

Given my general love of all things Bioware I'm hesitant to say that it will completely suck, but this isn't what DAO was. I sat down with DAO not expecting to like it all that much and about a week later I decided that it might be a good idea to go do my homework as I had ignored it and everyone else in my life ...

 

You gotta admit. The weapons and armor always did look kind of retarded.

I mean...mage hats for one.

 

They're already shit, they're just getting worse. Case in point, the TOUGH! MORAL! CHOICES!, and ULTIMATE! STRATEGIC! COMBAT!

Essentially they boiled down to, 1 choice at redcliff that was kinda hard, except it had an obvious answer. Bang the succubus, erm wrong, sorry, take him to the mages I mean. This is of course after you bang the succubus and get the blood mage talent path. Then reload having experienced the sex and retained the path.

The strategic combat was a fucking laugh, guide to win instantly, no matter the losses, send in your melee to engage the melee, then start healing the melee you've got in there taking the agro, while assigning your other mage to nuke the shit out of the other ranged combatants.

Yeah it's a dark universe, but it's basically Tolkien dipped in coffee. Paired with EVERY other dark fantasy universe out there. No element is actually original in nature. Elves are from Erberron, the Chantry and Mage lore is from ripped WHF, the Church is Catholicism or really, Islam technically since she wasn't the child of the Maker but his prophet, Dwarves are ripped from Tolkien and WHF, and so on and on and on.

Also to address the turn based combat comment, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH that would be funny if it wasn't so sad. Try something like Fallout, pre-bethesda screw up, if you want turn based combat, it also has a good story, better quest design, less combat, better area design, less tedious combat, less filler combat, cooler aesthetics, semi-original backstory. Dragon Age is real time with pause. As I call it, DDR light, space, click, click, click, change character, click, button, click, click, change character, click, button, click, click, change character, click, button click, click, zoom out again, space. Every 10 seconds. I'm actually not sad they are changing it to a more A-RPG based system. They were trying something they couldn't do last time. To create a visceral system, that had to be babied to avoid it fucking up.

As far as biggest world in a single player game, Daggerfall takes the cake, it's the size of an actual country, and is actually populated with a decent amount of towns and cities. Suffered from M&Mitus and early RPG issues as well, most people were more of guide books than actual NPCs, something Bethesda has never been able to really correct.

My hatred of Bethesda, Publishers, and Bioware should be noted, bethesda hasn't made a good game since Battlespire or possibly Morrowind on the days I find it in my heart to be nice, and Bioware hasn't since the toolkit for NwN was used to create some of the best mods of all time.

As to the video, not as bad as I thought, still shit, will likely control like shit if they release it on the PC as well. Will also likely control like shit on the consoles. Especially with the delay of wireless controllers factoring into the mix.

As far as the mistakes Mass Effect made, the dialogue wheel is rather hilarious, I'd honestly like to see it branch out into the actual dialogue as I mouse over the segment. It comes out completely different that I could have pictured. The universe is space opera, but meh, that's fine, it's hard to innovate in a genre that's been tread upon so much by so many people. The gameplay is Gear's of War with Magic and a bigger health bar in the original, the gameplay in the sequel is gears of war with magic. I HATE COVER BASED SHOOTERS. You have no ability for vertical gameplay, because the side on the higher area will absolutely rape the side on the lower one. So much so that bethesda programed a seeking algorithm into the enemies in it, any time you are on a lower, thus tactically inferior level, the enemies either won't fire until you are on their level or will go to the lower level you are on. This is obvious in I wanna say tuchanka or the area where you find Grunt, there's a section as you are going in, where you come across a staircase, now there's a trigger on the other side that spawn enemies around the corner. So if you turn around after having crossed that trigger barely and head up the staircase, and back down the other side. The people will follow your path, because you triggered the elevation AI.

At another point this time I'm sure on Tuchanka, you are facing the Krogan warlord or one of his lieutenants, you're on a lower level, and shoot one of the explosive gas lines, (why are they explosive and why does a second bullet ignite it where the first doesn't? Because the plot demands it) The balcony survives but the idjit doesn't, the people he brought with him, MOVE OFF THE BALCONY to face you. And can't seem to hit you while on it despite the fact that the have a clear shot at you.


QROIST, I'm starting to sound like a fucking Rivet counter I should stop before I get to really into it.

 

I don't have time to spend an hour loading that video right now, since I'm going to bed.

But I'll just say now that, in general, I don't really give a shit. I'm in it for the plot more than anything. Gameplay certainly matters, but as long as it isn't crippling -- as in, I literally cannot play a game because of it -- it's not nearly as big a deal as the story.

 

[ /COLOR ]. Use it.

Well yes, if you read fucking spoilers and know how every choice will end up in advance, then of fucking course the fucking choices aren't fucking hard, you fucking toolbox. My first playthrough I killed the mother to get the demon out, because I thought leaving the boy who just caused a miniature zombie apocalypse to twiddle his thumbs while I went a-wandering to the Tower of Magi was a bad idea.

All of the major plotlines are similar. The Dalish? The 'best' choice involves trusting the physical manifestation of a centuries-old werewolf curse. Orzammar? Bhelen's a shit of a person, but a good King. Harrowmont's the opposite. And as for the anvil, smashing the supersoldier machine when what you need more than anything else is muscle is an extremely questionable act. And as for the Magi, there's no reason at all to assume that the senior mages survived the encounter without any fade demons clinging to them.

Somebody played on easy.

The Fade is nothing at all like the Chaos Wastes and doesn't at all resemble the winds of magic. There's a minor resemblance in that wielding magic makes you a more attractive target for demons, but that's about it.

How the fuck can you compare Andrastism with real-life religions without mentioning Joan of Arc or Arthurian legend? Oh, right, being an idiot.

Except they don't hate elves, aren't a race of alcoholics, and don't have an obsession with beards. Their runes and berserkers are Scandinavian as fuck, just as their caste system is very Hindu. Their technology is steadily improving each generation instead of backsliding as in Tolkien and Warhammer.

The vast majority of Daggerfall's area - I'm talking upwards of 99% - was randomly generated and generic as hell. And call me weird, but I'd rather have the 26 square kilometers of Morrowind and have every bit of it hand-crafted and interesting than have 487 000 square kilometres of randomly generated generica.

You have no understanding of the concept of pacing, do you? The point of the wheel is for dialogue to flow smoothly instead of there being awkward pauses while you choose what to say next. And if you can't extrapolate what Shepard's about to say based on the words and the part of the wheel it's on, you may be suffering brain damage.

This is the most ridiculous quibble I've ever heard. Lots of buildings have gas lines, there's a lot of flammable gases that won't ignite until they've mixed with a sufficient amount of air.


Normally I'd keep mum about all this, considering you're broadly agreeing with me, but it pains me to be even peripherally related to someone spouting such nonsense.

 

Considering it's the job of a mage, and the mages tower to fix shit like that, it's the obvious choice. I picked as soon as Jowan proposed it.

Assumptions, just saying there are no consequences. And you're rewards, provided they are not monatary, carry over whatever game you play on your account.

Actually no, I played on hard for the first three hours got bored and played on hardcore from then on. It kept a small amount of challenge. But the shit res mechanic fucking gimped any sense of consequence out of dying. Oh woopdifreaking do, one of my character's is down in attack speed, doesn't matter all they are are damage spounges for my mages. Oh dear lord, I've lost a percent of health, that's no problem, I have healing spells and most of my damage comes from my mages.

Here's a tip, melee does nothing to you, play it like it's old school, IE, control all your character's actions, and think, who is most dangerous, who's going to potentially kill my damage socks, who is going to out right kill my damage socks? And you're going to come out fine even in hardcore mode.

Actually, not really, the fade practically is the Warp, bar a pittance of lore. Allow me to quote,

You can kind of see the parallel can't you? Note that is a very basic description, because lexicanum tends to forget that not everything revolves around space flight. As to the Chaos Waste's those are just places where the Warp has merged with real space. To compare them to the Fade would be stupid. Also note, bad shit starts to happen when you enter it, IE the first blight. As it so happens, bad shit started to happen when people started entering the warp. As to it's eqiuvelent in Eberron, Dal Quor is rather similar. Possibly Kythri and Xorias as well.

Because I forgot that, and neither has a very big command of popular culture or talking now. Add those in if you want, they are relevant. Was more making a comment on the religion itself not the lore around it. It is in fact a parody/parrot of the medieval catholic church.

Except, they hate everyone not themselves, technically. Also, caste based systems are in WHF, as well as the only cities underground separated by paths that are overrun by orks lore. And that is debatable, it's possible that the only reason the dwarf technology isn't backsliding is because they are being pushed to the brink of destruction.

Quite true, shame Oblivion saw fit to make a land supposedly the size of Daggerfalll or bigger the size of Vvardenfell isn't it? And making most of it bland randomly generated stuff, and cutting out 3 cities, and cutting out most towns, and removing/going against most of the cool lore regarding it in Morrowind, and I could go on, but I won't.

Er, wut? That's not at all what I meant. I meant that often times when you click something, it turns out to be completely different than what the word suggested. IE clicking something like a renegade "No," Turns into, "No, and I shall eat your entrails upon my tummy!" Well not really that bad, but you get the point. EDIT because I know someone is going to take offense to this: Example, right at the beginning of mass effect 1. Nihlus is talking at the edge of the ship. He talks about you joining the spectre's, Renegade choice is "and if I refuse." Which turns out to be a really snarky, "I don't like people making choices about my future." WAIT! WHAT? THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU IN THE MILITARY?

Than what generated the heat that allowed it to ignite? Is everyone using tracer rounds? Wait no, that's impossible, they are using supercools super sonically propelled bits of metal. Why would it stop being on fire then, and why did the fire only spread in one direction, why did the Krogan catch on fire, even though he's supposedly in futuristic space armor? It's a minor quibble, I know, but it disrupts immersion. And that was really supposed to be a minor joke in a small section on the shitty AI and flaws of cover based gaming.

I'm glad you agree.

 

THERE IS NO WARP IN WARHAMMER FANTASY, YOU SLACK-JAWED GUTTERSLUT

I'm not even going to bother with the rest of it, but that piece of completely fucking false information is even more infuriating than your usual brand of retardation.

 

Actually yes there is. The chaos wastes are caused by the collapse of the great polar warp gates causing bleeding from the Warp into the material plane itself, idjit. The uni/metaverse is mostly the same from Warhammer 40k to Warhammer Fantasy. It's assumed that the whole constant war of WHF is are taking place on a garden world unknown/lost to most of the races.

Also fun to note DA wise, the similarities between the blight and the incursions of chaos beasts from those areas corrupted by the warp, into the mainlands.

EDIT: Also the similarity of Lyrium and Warpstone.

In short, Lulz, you be false.

 

Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k are two completely distinct universes. There's similarities in how chaos is handled, but things like magic being obscenely more stable than psyker powers are a big hint. Where 40k has the Warp, which is an alternate dimension that exists parallel to reality, Fantasy has the Realm of Chaos at the poles, where the Slann's masters' whatever-the-hell-they-were-doing blew up in their face.

If that wasn't enough of a hint, the fact that there's still non-chaotic Gods in Fantasy while 40k only has the gestalt entities of Gork and Mork, the broken fragments of Khaine and the sole free, whole, true deity Cegorach should have spelled it out for you.

And it's very much not-at-all canon that they're in the same universe. That was a hinted-at sideplot that was discarded around 40k 3rd edition, more than a decade ago, for business reasons - they didn't want to sideline the Fantasy verse by having it a seen as one smaller part of the 40k verse, and they didn't want the metaplots of 40k and Fantasy to influence each other. And even when it was a possibility, it wasn't a garden world at all, it was a world within the Eye of Terror.

 

Ah, then wouldn't the realm of chaos form the universe's equivalent of the Warp, then? The Chaos Waste's are explicitly referred to as areas where that is crossing over with the material realm.

In terms of lore, The realm of chaos is where the chaos god's dwell, it's where the demons come from, where psykers/wizards derrive their power from, its only lacking feature is they haven't found out how to exploit it for travel, yet.

Also there are good gods in WH40k as well. The eldar god's are still mostly around, with a few being taken captive by the chaos gods or Khaine. Isha, Yannead, Vaul are all depicted as still alive, Yannead being a forming god, Isha being in Nugal's loving hands, and Vaul being enslaved by Khaine. The god emperor is still around, though appears to be turning into a chaos god.

---------- Post automerged at 02:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:36 AM ----------

If you don't get what I'm saying here, if I design a DnD OGL game taking place in a multiverse, where the main area is a city within a cone-shaped cave world interconnected with every other world, expanding to infinity, and ruled by X-noble-title of x-emotion, then call it Rune, or something like that. People are still going to refer to it as Sigil or possibly something snarky like "Sigil-lite the fresh new taste that's really old" and refer to the setting as new planescape, even though it technically isn't. Because as far as the casual fan is concerned, it is the same.

In terms of function and theme, the Chaos Realm, is exactly the same as the warp, just with names changed. Most of the Gods of Chaos don't even have names and unit's changed.



Edit: and as far as consequence goes in Dragon Age. Nature of the beast, Help the elves carry out a ridiculous vendetta, help the werewolves do the same, of fix the fucking curse, is your choice. Difficulty of the fight against him when he get's pissed, a single mana clash. Rewards, killing the werewolves, Heart of Withering, +1 str +1 con, 50% nature resist, a ring with +1 cunning, a decent sword, troops for your upcoming battle, opinion up with Dwarfly, and regular bitch. Consequences, Opinion down with Old-Spicegirl, and with annoying french accent. Reward for killing the elves, shitty ring, another ring with +1 cunning, soldiers in your upcoming battle against the blight, opinion up with stone-tranny and bitchy consequences for this action, opinion down with old-bitchy, and annoying accent elf, lost access to the ingredient stocks. Reward for the cure, a shitty unique shield, a ring with +1 cunning, opinion up with Carth, bitchy, annoying accent french, and old bitchy, consequences, er, none. Also when it comes down to it, the choice is, commit genocide, commit genocide, or cure plague and curse. OH NO! WHICH DO I CHOOSE! That's not a gray moral choice, that's not even a black and white one, that's a choice between retarded and intelligent.

Dwarf choice is similar, isolationism which will wipe out the dwarves eventually, or going out and actually trading with the exterior races, yes he's unsportmanlike. Yes he used less than scrupulous methods, but given his culture, he's a good person. I mean he could have had you killed if he wanted in the dwarven noble path.

Similarly if your think morally, the forge is not a tough choice, it only becomes a tough choice when you think pragmatically. Morally, it's a piece of shit that inflicts soul torture upon a person to bind them into something stronger than they are. Hmm, extra strength at the cost of torture then slavery, doesn't sound very good to me. Denied on moral grounds, that's not a tough choice. Thinking about it pragmatically, yeah they are a good idea to have around, but in regards to any morality system, enslaving someone after torturing them isn't a good idea.

As to the circle mission, let's see, kill the mages in the tower, gain the templars, an organization shown to be racist, sectist, sexist, and idiotic at all points throughout the game. Let the mages live, if Irvine lives this is possible, and you get the circle back, you know the necessary part of the world. The faction that teaches mages not to be idiotic and kill themselves/get possessed. Rewards, of either, troops for the war effort, really that's it, you get a different unit for the battle near the end.

As to the demon the arl's son is possessed with, that's just a desire demon. If it were a pride demon then it would be a real worry. As it is, if you can keep him unconscious and bound there's really nothing he can do, he'll be getting raped by Succubi, I mean Daemonettes, I mean lillendi, I mean nymph, I mean Erinyes, I mean desire demons the whole time. I hope I got it in that mess.

Tough moral choices, really, aren't they?